Intelligently sharing messages across groups

ABSTRACT

Identifying recipients to receive communication based on content selection may be provided. An indication of content selected by a user is received. The content may be part of group communication that is communicated among users via an online communication application. The content and an author of the content are identified. One or more criteria may be applied to the content to determine the recipients of the communication. The communication may be transmitted as a single message to the recipients simultaneously.

FIELD

The present application relates generally to computers and computerapplications, and more particularly to intelligently sharing messagesacross groups, for example, in social networking environment.

BACKGROUND

Social networking applications or websites allow users to communicatewith one another, for example, using microblogging or the like features.Such microblogging has become a popular means for communicating,especially in view of the proliferation of the online social networkingusage over the Internet. However, things can easily get out of controlwhen many people post message on another person's online socialnetworking wall. For example, a person just bought a new house and hadher own birthday. Other people start posting messages such as“Congratulations!” and “Happy birthday” on her wall. In turn, the personresponds to everyone, e.g., with a “Thank you!” individually. Suchindividual responses invariably result in some redundancy in the gestureof the person.

BRIEF SUMMARY

A method and system of identifying recipients to receive communicationbased on content selection may be provided. The method in one aspect maycomprise receiving an indication of content selected by a user. Thecontent may be part of group communication that is communicated amongusers via an online communication application. The method may alsocomprise identifying the content and an author of the content. Themethod may also comprise applying one or more criteria to the content todetermine the recipients of the communication. The method may furthercomprise transmitting the communication as a single message to therecipients simultaneously.

A system of method of identifying recipients to receive communicationbased on content selection, in one aspect, may comprise a user interfacemodule operable to run on a processor and further operable to receive anindication of content selected by a user, the content being part ofgroup communication that is communicated among users via an onlinecommunication application. A processor may be operable to identify thecontent and an author of the content. The processor may be furtheroperable to apply one or more criteria to the content to determine therecipients of the communication. The processor may be further operableto transmit the communication as a single message to the recipientssimultaneously.

A computer readable storage medium storing a program of instructionsexecutable by a machine to perform one or more methods described hereinalso may be provided.

Further features as well as the structure and operation of variousembodiments are described in detail below with reference to theaccompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicateidentical or functionally similar elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of the present disclosurein one embodiment.

FIG. 2 shows an example of group communication in which a user hasselected content in one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic of an example computer or processingsystem that may implement a recipient identification system in oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In one embodiment, a method may be presented that can manage adhocgroups, for example, by selecting a first and second collaborationartifact, retrieving the authors of each artifact (owners, editors,etc.), analyze the lists of authors to create an adhoc group, and usingthe adhoc group to initiate or participate in conversations. Thecollaboration artifacts can be threaded.

The selection may be done through explicit actions such asdrag-and-drop, mouse clicks, and/or other input gestures. The selectionmay involve more than two artifacts. The analysis may use conjunctionsand disjunctions to create the adhoc group. The adhoc group, when used,may pre-populate new conversations with the collaboration artifacts. Thelength of the adhoc group's life span may be determined by one or moreof: fixed time window, e.g., 1 hr, 1 day; determined based on authorattributes, e.g., User A is a heavy participant in an activity stream,so the adhoc group should have a longer life (The inverse could also betrue, e.g., User A seldom participates in the activity stream, so theadhoc group should have a relatively short life);User/administrator/system settings; Any combination of the life spans.The length of the life span may be increased or decreased.

The length of the adhoc group can be tuned based on feedback. The adhocgroup may have an avatar, a graphical image representing a person. Theavatar may be a group picture of all the participants in that group. Theavatar may be selected from a preferred user in the adhoc group, orrotated. The typeahead may use the adhoc group to associate users whenthe user types a name which exists in the adhoc group membership.

The adhoc groups generated by conjunction/intersection may last longer.Intersection shows a stronger social relationship with the user. Whenthe same adhoc groups are generated, the groups may be shared. The adhocgroups with the same user set may be combined into one permanent groupshared by each owner.

The methodology of the present disclosure in one embodiment may improvethe end user's productivity in using social networking website oranother application via which users communicate.

Social network refers to a network of people, in which nodes are peopleand the connections between the nodes represent the relationshipsbetween people. The capacity to social network is provided by acomputer-implemented platform or service that allows people tocommunicate and interact, e.g., create or form one or more groups orcommunities and share information, e.g., content such as social mediacontent (text, image, video, and others) generated by people. Socialnetwork applications usually operate over the Internet, e.g., utilizingWorld Wide Web (web) and web site technology. Social networking sites orwebsites are online places where users can sign up, create a profile forthemselves, and socialize with others, e.g., using social media toolssuch as blogs, video, images, tagging, messaging and others. A profileof social network refers to the information a user provides to thesocial network application about the user when the user signs up for asocial network website. A wall is a section in a user's profile or webpage of social network site where others can write messages to the user.The wall may be a public writing space so others who view the user'sprofile can see what has been written on the user's wall. The user canalso respond directly back to the friend who wrote on the wall.

The following illustrates an example of a use case scenario in oneembodiment of the present disclosure. The user logs on to a socialnetworking website. The user views different messages posted on herwall. The user notices that some people said “congratulations” and otherpeople said “happy birthday!” The user selects a message using an inputdevice. For example, the user holds down the mouse and draws a circlearound a message that says “congratulations!” Another geometric shapemay be used to select the message or portion of the content of themessage. While drawing of a circle is used in the below scenario, itshould be understood that any other geometric shape or selectionindication may be utilized. Referring to the use case scenario example,a user interface of the present disclosure shows the circle, e.g.,highlighted on the user interface. Responsive to receiving the userselection, a computer-implemented process automatically retrievesauthor's profile information from this group of people who postedsimilar messages as the selected message.

The user may select another message using an input device. For example,the user holds down the mouse again and draws another circle onto themessage saying “happy birthday!” The second circle is shown, e.g.,highlighted on the user interface. The computer-implemented processautomatically retrieves author's profile information from the secondgroup of people who posted similar messages as the selected message.

The user may drag the first circle on top of the second circle. Thecomputer-implemented process automatically creates a union of the twogroups of people. The user drags the first circle and places the edge ofthe first circle on top of the edge of the second circle. The user candetermine how much overlapping the user wants to have among groups, forexample, as described in more detail below. The computer-implementedprocess automatically creates an intersection of the two groups ofpeople. The same action can be performed on other groups as needed whenthe user want to create more complex adhoc groups. For example, uponselection of the first message, the computer-implemented process orsystem extracts the referenced users, e.g., those who are listed in‘to’, ‘cc’, ‘bcc’ header fields, authors, or readers. When the secondmessage is selected, the computer-implemented process or system extractsthe second set of referenced users. The computer-implemented process orsystem compares the two lists such that the intersection of the twolists—elements in both lists—are kept. For example, consider an examplein which User B and User E are in the first set; User S and User E arein the second set. The computer-implemented process or system checks thesecond set to determine if User B and User E each exist. As User E isthe only member of each one, the intersection group is now the set ofUser E.

Once the adhoc group creation is finished, the user can type in a “ThankYou” message, e.g., in the Status Update message box. The user candecide to submit this message to the newly created group.

In one aspect, a user interface of the present disclosure may display apercentage scale labeled on a circle the user is dragging and droppingonto another circle. For example, as the user moves the circle ontoanother circle, the percentage indication of the amount of intersectionbetween the two circles may appear on the user interface. If the userwants to create a 20% of intersected members between these two groups,the user moves the edge of the first circle and ensures the 20% label ison top of the second circle. This implies that the user wants to have20% of the matched users that posted similar comments to be createdwithin one group. If the user chooses 80% scale then analyzing whichteam members should be placed in the same group may be less strict.

For example, consider two list of users: first list includes User A,User B, User C, User D, User E, User F, User G, and User H; second listincludes User A, User B, User C, User J, User K, User L and User M. Thecomputer-implemented process or system identifies that intersectingmembers of the two lists include User A, User B and User C. As anexample, if a user via an input device indicates 33% (to create a groupcomprising 33% of the intersected members), the computer-implementedprocess or system detects the 33% indication, and determines that acorresponding adhoc group would be Group A (including User A), Group B(including User B), Group C (including User C). That is one or moregroups are created that include 33% of the intersecting members. Asanother example, if a user indicates 66% (e.g., by dragging and droppingone list into another list, and stopping at 66% overlap label), thecomputer-implemented process or system determines that a correspondingadhoc group would be Group A (including User A and User B), Group B(including User A and User C), Group C (including User B and User C).That is one or more groups are created that includes 66% of theintersecting members.

The user can take advantage of thread view feature provided in socialnetwork applications. Threads, for example, are strands of conversation.In some applications, threads may be defined by messages that use theuse the same subject. The user can hold down the mouse and draw a circleonto a threaded message and create an ad hoc group from the peoplecontributed comments to that thread. The user can respond to this ad hocgroup with one message.

In another aspect, when the user sends out the “Thank You” message tothe group, the message can also append each person's name from this adhoc group to it to make the message more individualized. For example,the message can look like: Thank you, Susan, Lisa, Sarah, Brian andTodd!

The methodology of the present disclosure can be applied to webconference or phone conference message broadcasting, for instance, inaddition to social networking. For example, one or more adhoc groupsthat may be created according to a methodology of the present disclosuremay be reused to create a web conference or phone call. The methodologymay help a user from performing redundant tasks.

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of the present disclosurein one embodiment. The method for example identifies recipients toreceive communication based on content selection. At 102, an indicationof content that is selected by a user is received. In one embodiment,the content is part of communication messages communicated among users,e.g., to the user from a plurality of other user, e.g., part of groupcommunication that is communicated among users via an onlinecommunication application. Examples of content include, but are notlimited to, a post, repost, message, text, picture, video, file, orcomment, or combinations thereof. Examples of online communicationapplication may include social network application, an electronic mailsystem, a short message service, an instant message service, orcombinations thereof.

For example, the user and the plurality of other users may be registeredusers of a service or application such as a social network applicationthat allows the user and the plurality of other users to communicate,e.g., online. The indication may be a user selecting the content, forexample, using an input device by drawing a shape around the content. Anexample of a shape is a circle. A user interface of the presentdisclosure in one embodiment may detect such indication that is inputusing an input device.

FIG. 2 shows an example of group communication in which a user hasselected content in one embodiment of the present disclosure. Thisexample shows messages 202, 204, 206 as content posted on a socialnetwork wall of a user. The wall is part of a user interface thatdisplays the content such as messages and allows the user to input data,e.g., more messages. The user interface in one embodiment of the presentdisclosure may also allow the user to select content, for example, drawa geometric shape around the content, or another gesture to select thecontent, using an input device. The user interface detects theselection.

Referring to FIG. 1, at 104, the content is identified and the author ofthe content is also identified. Other attributes associated with thecontent may be also identified. For example, the user interface maydetect the selection and selected content. The user interface or anotherprocess may analyze the content using a natural language processingtechnique to parse the content. The parsed content may be used todetermine other content in the group communication related to thecontent that is selected, e.g., those that are similar. The author ofthe content may be identified based on the information stored by theservice or application that provides the group communication facility.An example of such service or application is a social networkapplication.

At 106, based on one or more criteria associated with the content, therecipients are identified. For example, one or more criteria is appliedto the content to determine the recipients of the communication. Theuser may have a control over which criteria to use. For instance, theuser interface may allow the user to enter to select one or morecriteria. An example of criteria may include other users providingcomment related to the content. Those other users providing commentrelated to the content in the group communication may be identified anddetermined as the recipients. Another example of criteria may be othercontent in the group communication that is similar to the selectedcontent.

As an example, similarity of contents may be determined based ontechniques such as natural language processing technique that may parsethe content into tokens and compare the number of tokens in common.Based on commonality (e.g., the number of tokens in common) between thecontents, similarity may be determined. For example, if there iscommonality that meets a defined similarity threshold level, thecontents may be considered to be similar. The authors of those contentdetermined to be similar to the selected content may be identified asthe recipients.

Other examples of criteria may include one or more rule-based criteriathat considers one or more factors associated with time, social networkaffinity to the user, one or more attributes associated with thecontent, or one or more attributes associated with the users (e.g., auser who identifies to be interested in the subject matter of thecontent), or combinations thereof.

As described above with reference to an example use case scenario, theuser interface or the like functionality in one embodiment of thepresent disclosure may allow the user to combine a plurality of content,for example, by dragging and dropping one selected content over anotherselected content. The authors of the overlapping content are identifiedand determined as the recipients. For example, the user interface oranother computer-implemented functionality may identify the firstartifact or content, and extract the authors and/or users of the firstartifact. The user interface or another computer-implementedfunctionality may detect dropping of the first artifact on a target droparea of the second artifact, and extract the authors and/or users of thesecond artifact. The user interface or another functionality mayevaluate the sets of authors/users for intersections.

At 108, a reply message or communication may be sent or transmitted tothe determined recipients. For example, a single message orcommunication may be sent that replies or comments on the content to thedetermined recipients simultaneously. An example of sending ortransmitting the communication is responsive to the user entering thecommunication, posting the communication on a social network websitepage or wall.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the determined recipientsmay be saved or used as a group. Hence the methodology of the presentdisclosure in one embodiment creates an adhoc group based on content andone or more criteria.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic of an example computer or processingsystem that may implement a recipient identification system in oneembodiment of the present disclosure. The computer system is only oneexample of a suitable processing system and is not intended to suggestany limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of embodiments ofthe methodology described herein. The processing system shown may beoperational with numerous other general purpose or special purposecomputing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-knowncomputing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may besuitable for use with the processing system shown in FIG. 3 may include,but are not limited to, personal computer systems, server computersystems, thin clients, thick clients, handheld or laptop devices,multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes,programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputer systems,mainframe computer systems, and distributed cloud computing environmentsthat include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.

The computer system may be described in the general context of computersystem executable instructions, such as program modules, being executedby a computer system. Generally, program modules may include routines,programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and so on thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.The computer system may be practiced in distributed cloud computingenvironments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices thatare linked through a communications network. In a distributed cloudcomputing environment, program modules may be located in both local andremote computer system storage media including memory storage devices.

The components of computer system may include, but are not limited to,one or more processors or processing units 12, a system memory 16, and abus 14 that couples various system components including system memory 16to processor 12. The processor 12 may include a module 10 that performsthe methods described herein. The module 10 may be programmed into theintegrated circuits of the processor 12, or loaded from memory 16,storage device 18, or network 24 or combinations thereof.

Bus 14 may represent one or more of any of several types of busstructures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, an accelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus usingany of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, and notlimitation, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture(ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA)bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, andPeripheral Component Interconnects (PCI) bus.

Computer system may include a variety of computer system readable media.Such media may be any available media that is accessible by computersystem, and it may include both volatile and non-volatile media,removable and non-removable media.

System memory 16 can include computer system readable media in the formof volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM) and/or cachememory or others. Computer system may further include otherremovable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storagemedia. By way of example only, storage system 18 can be provided forreading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media(e.g., a “hard drive”). Although not shown, a magnetic disk drive forreading from and writing to a removable, non-volatile magnetic disk(e.g., a “floppy disk”), and an optical disk drive for reading from orwriting to a removable, non-volatile optical disk such as a CD-ROM,DVD-ROM or other optical media can be provided. In such instances, eachcan be connected to bus 14 by one or more data media interfaces.

Computer system may also communicate with one or more external devices26 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a display 28, etc.; one ormore devices that enable a user to interact with computer system; and/orany devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enable computersystem to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Suchcommunication can occur via Input/Output (I/O) interfaces 20.

Still yet, computer system can communicate with one or more networks 24such as a local area network (LAN), a general wide area network (WAN),and/or a public network (e.g., the Internet) via network adapter 22. Asdepicted, network adapter 22 communicates with the other components ofcomputer system via bus 14. It should be understood that although notshown, other hardware and/or software components could be used inconjunction with computer system. Examples include, but are not limitedto: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external diskdrive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data archival storagesystems, etc.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements, if any, in the claims below areintended to include any structure, material, or act for performing thefunction in combination with other claimed elements as specificallyclaimed. The description of the present invention has been presented forpurposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to beexhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and the practical application, and to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

We claim:
 1. A method of identifying recipients to receive communicationbased on content selection, comprising: receiving an indication ofcontent selected by a user, the content being part of groupcommunication that is communicated among users via an onlinecommunication application; identifying the content and an author of thecontent; applying one or more criteria to the content to determine therecipients of the communication; and transmitting the communication as asingle message to the recipients simultaneously.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the criteria comprises other users providing comment relatedto the content, wherein the applying one or more criteria comprisesidentifying said other users providing comment related to the content inthe group communication, wherein the author and said other users areidentified as the recipients.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the oneor more criteria comprises other content determined to be similar to thecontent according to a similarity threshold, wherein the author of thecontent and authors of the other content are identified as therecipients.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more criteriais rule-based defined according to one or more factors associated withtime, social network affinity to the user, one or more attributesassociated with the content, or one or more attributes associated withthe users, or combinations thereof.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinthe content comprises a post, repost, message, text, picture, video,file, or comment, or combinations thereof.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the online communication application comprises social networkapplication, an electronic mail system, a short message service, aninstant message service, or combinations thereof.
 7. The method of claim1, further comprising: providing a user interface that allows the userto select the content; and responsive to the user utilizing the userinterface, allowing the user to control the criteria.
 8. The method ofclaim 7, wherein the user interface further allows the user to combine aplurality of content comprising the content, wherein the recipients aredetermined based on the combined plurality of content.